The invention relates to a lightweight vehicle or sporting and off-road driving, which can be driven on extremely difficult terrain, is capable of crossing obstacles and barriers, is not dangerous and is sufficiently small and light, can be carried by the driver or housed in the luggage compartment of a car.
Various types of vehicles for sporting and off-road driving are known in the art. They may be two-wheeled, such as motorcycles, or may be small four-wheeled vehicles. However, all of them, particularly when used for sporting, are dangerous and are the cause of many accidents, due to their high speed and inadequate stability.
Further, then ability to drive over difficult terrain, including obstacles and barriers, is limited. Four-wheeled vehicles find it very hard to overcome obstacles while motorcycles can overcome them in some cases, but require from the driver considerable ability and an often dangerous and sometimes even acrobatic performance.
Furthermore, the existing vehicles are fairly heavy and cumbersome and cannot be lifted by the driver and hand carried over obstacles that cannot be overcome, such as walls, canals, and the like, and cannot be housed in a confined space, for instance, in the luggage compartment of an ordinary car, so that the driver cannot transport them to distant terrain by driving a car in an ordinary way over highways or roads.
It is a purpose of this invention to provide a novel vehicle which has a number of features and advantages that are lacking in the vehicles of the prior art. These include:
1xe2x80x94The vehicle has the ability to be driven on almost any difficult terrain due to its drive method based on dual articulated tracks system;
2xe2x80x94It is an attractive and entertaining device, adapted to off-road sport driving;
3xe2x80x94It is safe and cannot cause accidents due to high-speed driving on difficult terrain;
4xe2x80x94It is lightweight, and can easily be hand carried by the user, when this becomes necessary for any reason;
5xe2x80x94It is sufficiently small, and can be folded or disassembled into two component assemblies, so as to be carried in the baggage compartment of au ordinary car;
6xe2x80x94It can be constructed by using technology known in the art;
7xe2x80x94It is inexpensive to make and operate.
8xe2x80x94It has a smart drive and motor system.
9xe2x80x94It has an optional dualxe2x80x94fuel and electricxe2x80x94motors system, wherein the fuel motor charges a battery and the vehicle can use its electric motor for quiet operation, or its fuel motor for high performance, long range operation.
9xe2x80x94Due to its motor and drive system, the vehicle is environmentally friendly: low noise operation, low ground pressure and narrow profile, contribute to a minimized interference with the ground and the environment.
The vehicle according to the invention is composed of two component assemblies, a front and a rear component assembly, each which comprises a plate, which constitutes its frame member, supported on a single flexible track, longitudinally and centrally located with respect to the respective component assembly, said front and rear plates being connected by a joint which has two degrees of freedom to permit the two component assemblies of the vehicle to be displaced with respect to one another, by rotating about a vertical axis, to enable the driver to control the vehicle""s direction, and about a horizontal transverse axis, to permit the vehicle to overcome slopes and/or obstacles. Preferably, the rotation about the horizontal axis is limited, more preferably to a few degrees above and below the horizontal plane, and the relative displacement of the said two component assemblies about said axis is subjected to non-linear resistance provided by two coil springs.
In this specification and claims, the terms xe2x80x9cverticalxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9chorizontalxe2x80x9d refer to the position of the vehicle-when placed on a flat horizontal surface. Each component assembly is essentially (though not necessarily absolutely), statically symmetric with respect to a plane parallel to the direction in which the component assembly can move and therefore coinciding with the axial plane of the respective track. Said plane is called herein xe2x80x9cthe longitudinal axial planexe2x80x9d of the component assembly. It will be understood that, because of the presence of the aforementioned joint, the longitudinal planes of the two assemblies can rotate with respect to one another to permit the vehicle to be steered. Any axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axial plane of a component assembly is xe2x80x9ctransversexe2x80x9d with respect to said assembly.
A minor static asymmetry may occur in each component assembly, since the motor, transmission and suspension parts thereof are located part on one side and part on the other of said longitudinal axial plane, as will be better seen hereinafter, and therefore, while ideally the center of gravity of said assembly should be located on said plane, in practice it may be slightly displaced from it, although skied persons can design each vehicle in such a way as to minimize said displacement. In any case, said displacement is irrelevant in the front component assembly, and, as to the rear component assembly, the vehicle user or rider can compensate it by locating himself slightly to one side of said plane, so that his center of gravity is displaced from said plane to the side thereof opposite to the side to which the center of gravity of the assembly is displaced.
The vehicle is provided with motor means, which preferably comprise a motor for each of the two component assemblies. Said motors may be independent or actuated by a common source of power. Various embodiments of motor means may be alternatively preferred, depending on the particular operation for which each individual vehicle is intended E.g. the source of power may be a combustion engine, the fuel being gasoline or diesel oil. The engine may drive a hydraulic pump, e.g. a variable displacement pump, which supplies hydraulic fluid under pressure to two hydraulic motors, one for each component assembly.
In another embodiment, the combustion engine may drive a generator, which supplies electrical current to two electric motors, one for each component assembly.
In a further embodiment, each component assembly is provided with a battery which supplies electric current to a motor. Said batteries may be charged from an external source of electric power. The choice of the embodiment is made according to the performance that is desired by the vehicle in each case, as will be better explained later.
In another embodiment of the invention, the vehicle is provided with a dualxe2x80x94fuel and electricxe2x80x94motors system, wherein the fuel motor charges a battery and the vehicle can use its electric motor for quite operation, or its fuel motor for high performance, long range operation.
The rider stands on the rear plate. Further, the front plate is provided with steering means, which preferably comprises two handles, one for each hand of the driver, and with a steering column connecting said plate to said handles. Preferably, said column in connected to said plate by two joints, having a horizontal and a vertical axis respectively, or by a joint having two degrees of liberty, a horizontal and a vertical one.
The tracks mesh with and are driven by wheels, which are part of the transmissions. For the purposes of this description, the part of each track that is below said wheels, will be called the xe2x80x9coperative sectionxe2x80x9d of the track, the part that is above said wheels will be called its xe2x80x9cinoperative sectionxe2x80x9d and the arc-shaped parts which connect said two sections will be called its xe2x80x9cconnecting sectionsxe2x80x9d. It will be understood that all the parts of each track alternatively become part and alternatively cease to be part of each of said sections.
Now, preferably, the operative portion of the rear track is straight and horizontal and that of the front track comprises two straight segments, a horizontal rear segment and a front segment at an angle to the rear segment and slanted away from the ground when the vehicle is placed on flat horizontal ground. For brevity""s sake, the rear and front segment will sometimes be called hereinafter the xe2x80x9chorizontalxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9craisedxe2x80x9d segment, respectively. The shape of the inoperative sections is not critical, though it is generally preferred that they be straight and horizontal to save space while simplifying structure.
The two plates are preferably provided with bottom or depending ribs, to which the wheels that dive the tracks are attached, directly or by means of connecting levers, as the case may be. Elastic means are provided at least between the rear plates and its connecting levers, to provide an elastic suspension.
Since only one track is provided for each plate and is positioned in its longitudinal axial plane, the vehicle has a balance comparable to that of two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles, and the driver will balance the vehicle in a way similar to that in, which he would balance any two-wheeled vehicle. However, such balancing is easier than for motorcycles or bicycles, because the entire body of the driver contributes to it, and not only in the upper part of the body, as in said two-wheeled vehicles.
Since the two plates of the vehicle are connected by a joint which permits rotation about a horizontal axis, the vehicle of the invention can be folded in order to store the vehicle in a limited space and transport it, e.g., by means of a car. If folding is not enough, the joint between its two plates permits to separate them, so as to disassemble the vehicle into a front and a rear component assembly.